HERPES DRUG FAILS ANIMAL TESTING

The Quigley Corporation and its wholly owned subsidiary Quigley Pharma announced Dec. 28 that a series of studies were conducted on the advice of Campbell Laboratories, University of Pittsburgh, to assess QR-435 (Quigley Pharma's broad spectrum anti-viral) potential for treating herpes keratitis.

While the in-vitro studies were very successful at killing the herpes virus on direct contact, the HSV-1/NZW rabbit keratitis model study showed that the compound, in its aqueous form, did not remain in the eye long enough to penetrate the corneal epithelial cells where the virus resides in an infection.

The HSV-1/NZW rabbit keratitis model is a recognized standard for evaluating potential therapeutic agents in this class and is only utilized based on prior positive experimentation, as was the case.

Quigley Pharma will continue to pursue R&D objectives of this compound in the treatment of respiratory viruses on the strength of prior successful in-vitro and ferret model in-vivo studies. The company's naturally derived formula has shown significant antiviral properties against various strains of H3N2 and H5N1 Influenza viruses in these studies.